New Jersey psychiatric hospitals could switch beds for 24 months

In New Jersey, patients who need involuntary commitment care could be matched to available psychiatric beds more easily. Assemblywoman Linda S. Carter's bill would let a licensed general hospital, psychiatric facility or special psychiatric hospital temporarily use an adult acute psychiatric bed as an adult closed acute psychiatric bed for up to 24 months, while keeping the bed's license status intact.

Involuntary commitment is the legal process for hospitalizing someone without their consent when state rules allow it. The change would be voluntary, not mandatory, and it would run as a 24-month pilot from the act's effective date.

When the bed changes, the license does not

The bed would keep its licensure designation while it is being used differently, and it could return to that designation without further Department of Health approval. The bill also says the temporary use would not count as a change in licensed bed capacity, and it would not require a certificate of need, a waiver or a new or modified license.

The state could not charge a fee for making the switch. The point is not to redraw the licensing map, but to give facilities room to match bed status with patient-care needs when they need that flexibility.

The limits on the pilot

The authority would not apply to short-term care facilities. And facilities that use it would still have to follow state and federal patient-safety, staffing, clinical-supervision and security requirements, with appropriate staffing levels and safety protocols in place at all times.

Available key vote records show the bill advanced without recorded no votes.